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In Charlotte, North Carolina, far from America’s southern border and any large body of water, I did not expect to find amazing tacos and especially not fish tacos. But then my husband and I came across Cabo Fish Taco Baja Seagrill in Charlotte’s NoDa neighborhood, and I was pleasantly surprised. The restaurant is cozy, divided into two rooms. We arrived for an early dinner so we were seated immediately. Complimentary chips and corn salsa arrived soon after.

Service is ridiculously fast. We had barely ordered when our two plates of tacos appeared!

Taco shells are poofy and airy, but crispy on the outside. I’ve never had such interesting tortillas. I love that you can mix and match Cabo’s signature tacos. I ordered one beer-battered whitefish taco and one blackened mahi-mahi taco, with a side of avocado pasta salad. Portions of fish are generous – be careful or chunks of fish will tumble out of your taco!

My husband ordered a pair of tavarua tuna tacos from the specialty taco menu. These seared tuna tacos rubbed in a yummy kiwi-pineapple sauce are to die for! I could eat these all day long. The side of jalapeno mashed potatoes were a creative twist on a potato classic.

If you haven’t yet tried Cabo Fish Taco, you’re missing out! Be sure to order the tavarua tuna tacos!

Like this:

Maki Maki, Woburn, MA

We arrived right on time at Maki Maki (40 Cummings Park , Woburn, MA) for our 7 pm reservation on a Sunday night. “You gotta wait…like 15-20 minutes,” quipped the host, who later turned out to be a waiter. I explained for a second time, that I had made a reservation. A short, pimply girl who seemed to be the actual hostess walked up, and she and the first guy talked over each other for a bit. The girl then proceeded to give my table away to another party. When she returned to the hostess stand, the first waiter said, in Cantonese, “what are you doing? This couple has a reservation!” To which the girl responded, confused, “oh…but those other guys are already seated in the main dining room….”. The pimply girl and the waiter debated about what to do about me and my boyfriend, and agreed to shove us into a dark, neglected corner of the restaurant, squished up against the end seat of a large party. I expressed my disappointment. The pimply girl responded defensively with “but… when you made your reservation, you didn’t specify you wanted a booth!” No, I had not. But I also didn’t specify I wanted a makeshift table. So after waiting another 10 minutes, we were re-seated at a much more comfortable booth in the main dining room.

Could the food make up for the terrible start to the evening?

Thumbs up go to the piping hot age tofu, with a delicate, thin, crispy fried outer layer. The gyoza arrived fried. I would have preferred steamed, but they were ok. The seaweed salad was also good.

The tuna tartare was plated nicely, but was essentially just the mush of the “spicy tuna” they put in maki rolls, formed into a cake.

The sashimi was quite fresh, and the selection was good. Having albacore tuna on the menu was a nice surprise. The list of maki rolls was long. and included rolls wrapped in soy sheets instead of nori, which was a nice twist. In addition to the rolls listed on Maki Maki’s online menu, there was another sheet with about 10 special rolls for the day. All of these sounded yummy.

At around $22 for an all-you-can-eat dinner, the sushi proved to be of good value. However, the quality of service never picked up after we were seated. Our waiter never came to refill our green tea. It was clear that the restaurant was understaffed, as our waiter rushed to serve each table, and never once checked on us.

The bathroom was ghetto, for lack of a better word. Latches on stall doors flew right off because there weren’t installed correctly, and there was and insufficient supply of toilet paper.

The Final Word: Good food and a comfortable main dining room, but unprofessional service. Worth going to for cheap sushi if you live nearby. Otherwise, I wouldn’t make the trip to suburbia just for Maki Maki.